


Flirting With Freezing

by Pippin



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Revolution, alternate universe- snowpiercer, snowpiercer - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5093750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pippin/pseuds/Pippin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is frozen and the remaining people are divided into a strict class system on a train traveling the world.  But not everyone is happy with their place in life, and they are willing to risk everything to change their little world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flirting With Freezing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [themcgeek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themcgeek/gifts).



“D’ya remember being proper warm?” Bucky asked softly, glancing over at Steve as they waited for their turn to sit.

 Steve didn’t respond, and Bucky mentally kicked himself.  He always forgot that the unexpected growth spurt Steve had hit soon after they had boarded the train hadn’t fixed his other physical ailments, and therefore that the other most likely couldn’t hear him.  He hated it, hated that his Stevie had the body to match his heart but that it still wouldn’t work.

They were instructed to sit, but Steve didn’t.  He just stared at the gates in front of them, mind presumably running along paths Bucky couldn’t follow.  A soldier pointed a gun at Steve, and Bucky yanked desperately at Steve’s jacket.  It took a few seconds, but eventually Steve sat, hunkered down next to Bucky as if he was still the size he had been before nineteen. 

Bucky pulled Steve around to face him—a lifetime of shoddy hearing had made learning to read lips a necessity for the larger man in times when they couldn’t speak at a volume for Steve to hear.  “What the hell, Steve?” he hissed.

“Gotta figure out how much time we have to get through the gates,” Steve replied calmly.

Bucky rolled his eyes.  Steve was so on board with the whole idea of a revolt, but Bucky didn’t think it was a good idea.  “Steve, no.  You’re not going through with this.”

“You can’t stop me, Buck.”

They lined up to grab their protein blocks, and in an attempt to distract Steve, Bucky repeated his earlier question.  “D’ya remember being proper warm?  Not the sort of warm we get on good days, but actual warm.  With the sun and all.”

“No.  That’s part of the reason we’ve gotta take the engine.  They’ve got the heat.”  Steve raised an eyebrow at Bucky.  “I know when it gets real cold in here your arm hurts worse.  Think of it—we get heat, you can get real warm and maybe it’ll stop hurting for once.”

Of course Steve would bring that up, one of the two main reasons Bucky hated the cold.  He’d never liked it; when Steve had been small he’d not been able to produce enough body heat to keep himself healthy.  That had been Bucky’s job, and had definitely provided the push to get the two of them together.  The other reason he hated the cold wasn’t the reason of most, the reason they were stuck on the blasted train, though it was definitely linked.  He didn’t hate the cold for taking the world away—he still had Steve, still had his own little world.  But…

Idly, Bucky rubbed the joint between his left shoulder and the metal hook the doc had fitted on the stump once it had healed.  Steve was right; it always ached.  It was like the cold that had cost him the limb had crept into his skin and bones and settled there.

“That’s not a good enough reason to take the front, Steve,” Bucky hissed.  “You’re gonna get yourself killed long before you reach the front.  How the hell are you planning on getting through all the doors?”

“I only need to get through the first gates.  Thor Odinson’s mentioned that he knows a guy who can get us through the rest.  Also mentioned that he’s a bit crazy and that’s why he’s in the prison car, but he can be controlled, provided we go about it right.”

Bucky stared at Steve, taking a protein block without even looking into the container.  “Steve.  You want to bring a crazy person into your already crazy plan?  You are gonna get _killed_.  Steve.  Steve.  Stevie.  You do understand that this is gonna end very badly, right?  You’re impulsive at best, pal.”

Steve looked at Bucky with huge, earnest eyes.  “That’s why I have you, though.  You’re my impulse control.  You’ve always made sure that I don’t get myself killed since I was old enough to be out on my own, to be getting myself into fights.  Why is this any different?”

Bucky set his face in his hand in exasperation.  “I cannot function as your missing sense of self-preservation forever, Steve!  Sooner or later I’m gonna get left behind.”

“It’s not happened yet,” Steve pointed out calmly.  “We’ll worry about it when it does.  Don’t you believe in me, Buck?”

Bucky swore internally.  Steve had turned the conversation on him, and now he couldn’t keep criticizing the plan without feeling like he was criticizing Steve as well. 

“…yeah, I believe in you, Stevie.”

Steve beamed.  “Great.”

***

“Barnes!  Erskine wants to see you.”

Bucky arched an eyebrow.  That made no sense.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like the man, or that they didn’t get along—the doc had been the one to fit Bucky’s new arm, after all—but the man definitely preferred Steve.  Regardless, he stood and headed to the makeshift lab and clinic Erskine ran.

“Heard you wanted to see me?” he said, poking his head through the curtains that sheltered the alcove from the rest of the car.

“Yes, yes, come in, James.”

“You’re the only person to call me James anymore,” Bucky said as he perched on a barrel serving as a makeshift chair.

Erskine shrugged.  “How’s the arm holding up?”

Bucky rubbed his shoulder.  “Aches like a bitch.  But at least I can use it for things, you know?  Better than when I only had the one.”

“Good, good…” Erskine said distractedly.

“As nice as this is, I know you didn’t want to see me just to inquire after the state of my arm.  What is it you want?”

“Steven.”

Bucky sighed.  “Steve is a great stubborn lump with a stupid plan that’s gonna get him killed.”

“Steven is determined to take the front, as well he should be.  The boy deserves more than this—and you do as well, James.  Don’t be so quick to dismiss your friend’s plan.  He’s very smart, and he has thought this through, no matter what you think.  I’ve heard what he intends to do and gave him some pointers, not that he needed many, and I think it’s going to work.  All those failed revolts of the past, they didn’t have what this one does.  They were spontaneous, not planned out.  This one, though—Steven has the drive and ambition to fight his way to front, as well as the brains to not necessarily have to.  Believe in your friend and help him.  He seeks your approval, more than you know.”

Bucky shifted uncomfortably.  “I can’t get behind this.  It’s suicide, plain and simple.  Steve’s gonna get himself killed, I know it, and I can’t stand by and let that happen.”

“Then don’t.  Go with him, keep him safe.  He’s going with or without you, and you know that on some level, even if you won’t let yourself admit it.”  Erskine peered closely at Bucky.  “You also know that he can actually do this; I can see it on your face.  You’re just afraid.  It’s okay to be afraid, James.  Fear helps keep us human.  Steven is the bravest person I know, and bravery isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the overcoming of it.  He’s conquering his fears for what he knows to be right, and I think that there is one fear that can hold him back, one fear that can get him killed—the fear of lacking your approval, of you being angry with him.  You keep saying that he is going to be killed, and if you don’t help him, you’re right.  If you stay back here and avoid the revolt, Steven’s mind is going to be back here as well, and that’s how he’s going to die.”

“I hate being used and manipulated,” Bucky warned, standing.  “Be real careful about that, doc.”

Erskine inclined his head.  “But you are going to help Steven?”

“Against my better will, yeah, I’m gonna help that punk.”

***

Bucky swung into his bunk under Steve’s, poking at his best friend through the loose weave.  “Hey, idiot.”

“Buck, it’s late,” Steve slurred.  “Go back t’sleep.”

“Gotta tell you something first,” Bucky hissed back.  “Talked to Erskine—I’m in on your dumbass plan.  The front better be real nice, to make it worth my trouble.”

He couldn’t see Steve’s face, but he could hear the smile in his reply.

“It’s gonna be, Buck.  I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a result of me watching Snowpiercer with a friend, falling in love with it, going through the Snowpiercer tag on Tumblr, and then promising themcgeek a Stucky Snowpiercer AU. I want to eventually get some longer chapters going on; this just felt like a natural break. There won't be any new chapters for a bit, since I'm taking November off for NaNoWriMo, though.


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